u/ClimateCoffee

I’m usually more comfortable talking about the work than celebrating it, but this feels worth bragging about.

Our small team in Laramie has spent years developing a process that uses spent coffee grounds to help roast the next batch of coffee. Instead of sending the grounds to a landfill, we convert them into fuel for an indirect-heat roaster while retaining carbon-rich biochar that can be returned to the soil.

This week, the Laramie Boomerang published a full feature about what we believe is the world’s first carbon-negative coffee-roasting process.

We built and tested this in Wyoming without a giant corporate R&D budget, so seeing the work receive serious news coverage is pretty surreal. We still have plenty to prove and scale, but I’m incredibly proud of how far this idea has come.

Full disclosure: I’m directly involved with Climate Coffee and High Plains Biochar. Since this is r/brag, I figured I was allowed to celebrate this one!

Article: https://www.wyomingnews.com/laramieboomerang/news/climate-coffee-brews-up-world-s-first-carbon-negative-roasting-process/article_151c4584-5042-47c9-b957-03d7c2beba00.html

Full disclosure: I’m part of the team behind Climate Coffee—and we know “carbon-negative coffee” sounds like a pretty bold claim.

This 50-second video explains what we mean:

Truly Carbon-Negative, Closed-Loop Coffee Roasting

Instead of relying on conventional fossil-fuel roasting, our process uses waste biomass—including coffee byproducts, spent coffee grounds and roasting chaff, even used coffee filter—to generate heat. During that process, a portion of the carbon is converted into biochar: a stable, useful form of carbon that can be kept out of the atmosphere for the long term.

The goal is a closed-loop roasting system that:

• Replaces fossil-fuel heat
• Gives coffee waste a productive second life
• Produces biochar while roasting
• Removes more carbon than the full process emits
• Uses indirect heat so combustion gases never contact the beans

But none of that matters if the coffee doesn’t taste great—which is why cup quality remains just as important as carbon removal.

We’d genuinely like the coffee community to pick this apart: What data would you want to see from a company claiming to make carbon-negative coffee? Full lifecycle accounting? Roast profiles? Emissions testing? Blind tasting results?

We’re building something different, and thoughtful skepticism is absolutely welcome.